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Britain is already a lame duck within the EU’s internal governing structure and is losing influence “by the day” in Brussels, even before David Cameron holds a referendum on withdrawal. This self-isolation has upset the European balance of power in profound ways, leading ineluctably to German hegemony and a unipolar system centered on Berlin. […] Such is the verdict of Roman Prodi, the former Italian premier and ex-president of the European Commission. […] “Germany is exercising an almost solitary power. The new presidents of the Commission and the Council are men who rotate around Germany’s orbit, and above all there...

Rome, 14 June (AKI) - Italy's Consulta, a government-appointed body on Muslim affairs, will draft a reform plan to change the country's citizenship laws and present it to the new centre-left government of Romano Prodi, its members said on Wednesday after meeting Interior Minister Giuliano Amato. The Consulta's panel, which includes people from a wide range of backgrounds and from ten Muslim nations, asked at the meeting for a law making it easier for immigrants to acquire citizenship. They will present their proposals within the next three weeks. Under the Consulta's proposal to the cabinet, which was sworn in last...

ROME The two faces of Italy - one that is increasingly secular and the other that is still deeply influenced by the church - collided last week in a noisy electoral debate that left one thing clear: Italy, it can safely be said, will not legalize gay marriage any time soon. The possibility was, in fact, never on the table. But Romano Prodi, the leader of the center-left in Italy, who is fighting to regain the job of prime minister, ruled it out anyway, after coming under attack by the Roman Catholic Church and conservative politicians when he said he...

By next May, the latest possible date for Italy's forthcoming national election, the country's political landscape could look very different. For one thing a new law, strengthening the role of proportional representation in the voting system, may be in place. For another, the three main parties in Italy's ruling centre-right coalition, which has held power since June 2001, may have merged into a single, if loosely knit, movement. Most intriguingly of all, Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister who will turn 69 in September, may not even be the centre-right's candidate for premier. Italy's next election campaign will take place against...

Italian investigators are focusing their attention on a shadowy group thought to be based in Bologna after a string of bomb attacks beginning in the Christmas period. A Red Brigades logo was found near a murder scene in 2002 They suspect that a number of letter bombs received by EU officials, including European Commission President Romano Prodi, are the work of Italian anarchists. An Italian-based group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Investigators believe the group has fewer than 300 members in Italy. The previously unknown group shares the Italian initials - FAI -...

The President of the EU's corrupt 'parliament', a Spanish socialist by the name of Borrell (elected, incidentally, to his position with the help of Britain's useless Tories) has given his views on Polish and Lithuanian efforts to help the Ukraine's orange revolution. In his view, apparently (the Baltic Times reports), "the Ukrainian crisis was resolved thanks to EU efforts and not because of mediation on behalf of Aleksander Kwasniewski and Valdas Adamkus. Poland and Lithuania, claimed Borrell, had not been instrumental and had essentially been “under U.S. control” while negotiating a settlement between the two sides in the conflict." The...

One of the reasons that the EU has so little credibility with its ‘citizens’ is the manner in which those who run it make clear that they have so little respect for their own rules. Whether, to take some recent examples, it’s members of the European Parliament fiddling their expenses, whether it’s the corruption within the Commission, or whether it’s the way in which France and Germany have (quite rightly, incidentally) decided to ignore the rules of the Growth and Stability Pact that underpins the Euro, the message is clear. This is a ‘union’ run solely by and for the...

Jan. 6, 2004 EU suspends anti-Semitism seminar By DOUGLAS DAVIS European Commission President Romano Prodi has suspended a seminar on anti-Semitism after World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman and European Jewish Congress President Coby Benatoff accused the commission of encouraging anti-Semitism. Prodi, who declared himself to be "both surprised and shocked" by the charges, told Bronfman and Benatoff that the seminar will not now go ahead as scheduled next month: "The attitude you have shown forces me to suspend the preparations," he wrote them. In a letter to the Financial Times, published Monday, Bronfman and Benatoff accused the commission -...

Romano Prodi, European Commission president, on Monday shelved plans for a conference on anti-semitism in Europe, after becoming embroiled in a rancorous dispute with Jewish leaders. Mr Prodi reacted furiously to claims by two prominent Jewish leaders in Monday's Financial Times that the European Commission was guilty of anti-semitism. His spokesman described the claims as "totally incomprehensible" and his aides said Mr Prodi no longer felt that conditions were right to hold the anti-semitism conference next month. "We are going to freeze the arrangements for this seminar," said Marco Vignudelli, Mr Prodi's spokesman. He said Mr Prodi was "completely surprised"...

A letter bomb has been intercepted and defused at the Dutch headquarters of the European Union's police agency, Europol. It is the third letter bomb sent to prominent EU figures or bodies in as many days. A government official in The Hague said staff at Europol alerted the bomb squad after they became suspicious about the package. Police are investigating the incident. Europol handles criminal intelligence and assists EU states in fighting organised crime. Earlier on Monday, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet was sent a suspected letter bomb and on Saturday a parcel exploded in European Commission President Romano...

ROME (Reuters) - A parcel bomb has exploded in the hands of EU Commission President Romano Prodi at his Bologna home on Saturday but he was not hurt, his spokesman says. "A parcel bomb arrived at his home. Prodi opened it himself, carefully. It exploded, making a big flame. He was not hurt and there was no damage," Marco Vignudelli told Reuters by telephone on Saturday. No one at Bologna police headquarters was immediately available for comment. On December 22, two small home-made bombs exploded in rubbish bins near Prodi's home in the city in northern Italy. Prodi was not...

<p>ROME (AP) — European Union Commission President Romano Prodi opened a letter bomb at his home in Bologna on Saturday but was not hurt when the package burst into flames, his spokesman said.</p> <p>It was the second attack on the EU's top official in a week.</p>

Last Monday, high up in a New York City Fifth Avenue apartment, where the russet tree tops of Central Park spread like a carpet and white clouds floated just above eye level, 15 or so media folk gathered. The breakfast was called for 8.30am and at 8.46 the distinguished visitors arrived, a dark-suited little phalanx of rimless glasses and smart electronic organisers. In their centre was the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi. Seated on my right was the EU's director-general of press and communications, a handsome Italian with buttery brown curls framing mournful brown eyes. More mournful, I...

Straw rebukes EU chief for attack on American link By David Rennie in Washington(Filed: 09/05/2002) JACK STRAW sharply rebuked Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, yesterday for suggesting that Britain's close relationship with America made it a bad European.Warning European leaders never to forget how much they benefited from America's power and strength, the Foreign Secretary said: "I do not share the view of Romano Prodi that Britain's relationship with America somehow gets in the way of playing a full part in Europe."I reject the idea that relations with the United States and EU involve a zero sum - that...

EU may get new 'bar-code' logo The European Union may be set to get a new bar-code-style logo as part of an image overhaul.It would replace the current blue EU flag which has 12 gold stars representing member states.European Commission president Romano Prodi commissioned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to create the new design.It places all the colours of the national flags of EU nations in strips alongside each other.Mr Koolhaas says he wants to show the unique diversity and unity of Europe in one image.The Independent reports Mr Prodi wants departments across the EU to look at altering Brussels' visual...

EU leader attacks Britain over links with United StatesBy Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels and George Jones, Political Editor (Filed: 30/04/2002) ROMANO PRODI, the president of the European Commission, rebuked Britain yesterday for lacking the courage to embrace the euro and play a full part in Europe.   Romano Prodi speaks at the opening of the Said Business School at Oxford University He angered the Government and Opposition politicians by claiming that Britain's attachment to the United States was built on wishful thinking and twisted notions of Europe."I wonder what makes this great nation so confident when dealing with a...